Tamarind Rice

 Sorry for putting in back to back tamarind recipes but that is keeping us rolling:

Tamarind Rice

Dry roast:

• Chana dal
• Urad dal
• Whole dhania (coriander)
• Little pepper
• Whole fenugreek
• Red chillies
• Hing

A - In a mixie make it into powder that is your puliogari powder

Heat oil:

• Til oil - 1 table spoon
• Mustard seeds
• Chana dal
• Urad dal
• Red chillies
• Peanuts
• Hing
• Curry leaves
• Haldi 
• Tamarind water
• Add powder from A above
• Add salt
• Once thickened - add mixture in rice

Baby Potatoes in Tamarind Curry

 This is house favourite so logging it here:

Potato-500gms Onion-2 Green Chillies-2 Garlic cloves-6 Tomato-3 Tamarind pulp-1 cup Turmeric-1/2tsp Sambar Powder-1tbsp Chilli Powder-1tbsp Cumin Powder-1/2tbsp Hing - 2 pinch Coriander leaves Salt to taste Sesame Oil Heat oil in a pan , add mustard,red chillies,cumin seeds and curry leaves. Add chopped onions, green chillies and cook untill it turns translucent and soft Add tomatoes and saute it for few mins. Add sambar powder,turmeric,salt,cumin powder and chilli powder,mix it well. Add tamarind water and cook for 12 mins in a medium flame. Add half boiled potatoes,cover it and cook for 10 mins in a medium flame. When oil floats on the top and the gravy is thick, switch off the flame. Garnish it with chopped coriander leaves. Serve it hot with rice or roti/dosa.Enjoy!

Water in the fridge - ideas to make them more refreshing.

Found this floating on facebook - worth bookmarking

SPRING CLEANSE ~ YOUR BODY ~ Yes another post about water :) But if you really want to cleanse then DRINK, DRINK, DRINK. Here are eight (8) home made vitamin water recipes to help you keep the water flowing!

As a rule, you should try to avoid as much as possible industrial food and beverages

1) The classical : lemon/cucumber:
Mix in a pitcher: 10 cups of water + 1 cucumber and a lemon, thinly sliced + 1/4 cup fresh finely chopped basil leaf + 1/3 of finely chopped fresh mint leaves. Leave in the refrigerator overnight before serving.

2) The granite: Strawberry/Lime or Raspberry/Lime
Mix in a pitcher : 10 cups of water + 6 strawberries / 0r Raspberries and one thinly sliced lime + 12 finely chopped fresh mint leaves. Leave in the refrigerator overnight before serving.

3) The digestive: Fennel/citrus
First: infuse 1 to 3 grams of dried and crushed fennel in 150 ml of boiling water for 5-10 minutes. Allow to cool.
Mix in a pitcher: 10 cups of water + lemon juice (put the leftover lemon in the mix) + a small thinly sliced orange + 12 fresh chopped mint leaves + the infusion of fennel seeds. Leave in refrigerator overnight before serving.

4) The antioxidant: Blackberry/Sage
Note that a part from the berries, sage leaf is the herb that has the highest antioxidant content.
Mix in a pitcher : 10 cups of water + 1 cup of blackberries that have been very slightly crushed + 3-4 sage leaves. Leave in refrigerator overnight before serving.

5) Watermelon: watermelon/Rosemary
Mix in a pitcher : 10 cups of water + 1 cup of watermelon cut into cubes + 2 rosemary stems. Leave in refrigerator overnight before serving.
P.S: I also use watermelon mint a lot.

6) The exotic: Pineapple/Mint
Mix in a pitcher : 10 cups of water + 1 cup of pineapple cut into cubes + 12 fresh mint leaves finely chopped. Leave in the refrigerator overnight before serving.

7) The traditional : Apple/cinnamon
Mix in a pitcher : 10 cups of water + 1 cup of apple cut into cubes + 2 cinnamon sticks + 2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon. Leave in the refrigerator overnight before serving.

8.) The zingibir : Ginger/tea
In advance: heat 1 teaspoon of ginger in two cups of tea, let it cool down.

Mix in a pitcher: 10 cups of water with two cups of the ginger tea + 4-5 pieces of fresh ginger cut into cubes. Leave in the refrigerator overnight before serving.

Valentine Day's Special : Orange Zest + Wine Chocolate layered on Valentine Red Coconut. - Vegan

I love colors. I love oranges (even my perfume is orange). I love wine. And I also like dark chocolates.  Lots of people like milk chocolates but I can never bring myself to eat them. High-taste is a one way street after all :).

Anyways  I wanted to make dark chocolate with oranges ala lindt style but with no sugar and no apparent calories.

This recipe of mine is inspired from Richa's cool blog   - do check out she has some really awesome valentine day's ideas: http://www.veganricha.com/2013/02/zesty-pink-coconut-chocolate-bites.html 
I really love her recipes - her vegan pasta is house favorite.

My adaptation of her recipe is here :
1) Chocolate Layer:  I used my simple 5 minute recipe http://aratikadav456.blogspot.in/2013/02/date-chocolate-truffles-vegan.html. Except that I added lots of orange zest to it.
(orange zest is grated orange peel).
Recipe of chocolate in Brief:
Ingredients - 
- Dates (15),
- chocolate powder (2 table spoons, I use cadbury choc powder),
- wine (optional),
- orange zest (again optional but I won't have it any other way:)),
- coconut oil

a) In a mixie run dates, orange zest with chocolate powder. Add a little coconut oil and a spoon of wine if it is too dry.
b) Heat the mixture in microwave for 30 secs. If dates not well-done mash them with spoon. Can add a little spoon of wine again if it is too dry - dont let the chocolate be too wet.

2) Red coconut layer:  For the color of the mixture I just ran the beetroot in a mixie  with water and strained the water to get the red color.
Recipe of Valentine Red Coconut in Brief:
Ingredients- 
- 3/4 cup grated coconut (I used fresh, one can use dry coconut too),
- 3-4 spoons of orange zest,
- 1/4th cup oats (ground),
- 2 teaspoons sugar,
 - 1 tiny beetroot.

a)  On a tava (flat pan) - roast coconut so that it is dry. Remove. Roast powdered oats so that they change their color a bit.
b)  Grind beetroot in a mixie with water. Strain the red colored water, add 2 teaspoons of sugar in it for syrup and boil it a bit so that it becomes little viscous.

Coconut mixture and chocolate together.

c) Add b) to a) on the tava in a controlled way so that it is not too wet and take it out in few minutes when the mixture looks cohesive and done.



Put coconut mixture on a butter paper or newspaper and flatten. Put chocolate on top of coconut mixture. You can sprinkle some chocolate powder on top and make it more dark :).

That's it. Cut and decorate with orange zest!!

Oh no! It's that time of the year again.

The recipe is so simple that I had to give it a complicated name to make it sound exclusive. Anyways, happy Valentine's day to anyone who cares :)!

Date + chocolate truffles - Vegan

Time to make 5 mins.
Now this is really a winner. When I was making it I thought it would taste like dates but it tastes like nice lovely chocolate.

Ingredients:
1) 15 dates (deseeded)
2) 2 tablespoon chocolate powder ( I use Cadbury's cocoa powder)
3) Coconut oil (I used parachute - no seriously I did but a pure coconut oil parachute bottle and I use it) but you can use any oil like olive or groundnut oil
4) Dry coconut powder (optional - but I love it)
5) A spoon of wine or rum (optional)
Steps:
1) In a blender blend dates and cocoa powder. I added a little coconut oil for it to be together. Also secret ingredient was a a spoon of wine. You can also add lots of orange zest to it and it will be yummy.

Now this was a problem for me as when I blended the dates were not blending properly. Then Priya suggested that we can microwave it. And I microwaved it for 20 seconds and mashed it with a spoon and it was fine. Maybe my dates weren't soft that's why But make sure the dates are mashed well.

2) Apply some coconut oil in hand and roll small balls of truffles. Roll them on coconut/dark chocolate.

3) You can eat them as soon as you make or refrigerate and eat.

Simple and easy - banana oatmeal pancakes - vegan!

I have always loved pancakes but making them required lots of unhealthy ingredients and I never liked the taste when I made them. Also I like them sweet so that I dont have to load them with syrups but I dont like adding sugar to make anything sweet.

I came across quite a few recipes on net and this one looked too good to be true. Almost a recipe masterpiece as far as pancakes are concerned.
http://www.colourfulpalate.com/2011/06/22/vegan-banana-oatmeal-pancakes/

All the ingredients are ususally in my kitchen so I could try it out immediately!

Here is my variation customized for Indian, relaxed household.

The ingredient list here makes 3 pancakes - small sized and I used my small cup for measurements.

0) 1 whole banana
1)  3/4th cup oatmeal
2) 1/4th cup atta (whole wheat flour)
3) 3/4th cup milk (soymilk for vegan - I think  I will try with soymilk too as it has a nice subtle flavor also)
4) pinch of salt
5) baking soda 1 tsp (I used Eno as I didn't have baking soda and in the morning only 24 hour chemist below my house was open)


Mix all the dry ingredients first in the mixie (that is dont add milk and banana just yet). Once finely powdered only then  add the banana and the milk and mix them all. Don't overrun the mixie. Add milk to adjust consistency if the batter is too hard.

If you have non-stick awesome but if not, pour a little oil (I use canola, but people say coconut oil tastes better with banana dishes).  And pour the batter and make the pancakes. Trust me, they really taste good.
Only tip is cook on medium heat.
I will upload a picture soon. We just made 3-4 and it got finished off before I could click it. You can have them as is or have them with honey. Yummy.

If you have waffle maker, you can use the same batter to make awesome waffles. (Tip is add, 1/2 tblsespoon ground flaxseed for crispiness and  half teaspoon of vanilla esssence).

I love waffles a lot too :).

Vegetable juicing recipes & roasted broccoli

Sometimes we eat lots of unhealthy food for days together and feel like having food high in micronutrients.
I really enjoy vegetable juice esp during winter when the instinct is to pile up on unhealthy food, I sometimes try to reverse the instinct by piling up on raw vegetables and fruits. Reminds me of IIT Kanpur days where a vegetable juice vendor would be sitting in the hostel and he was the only alternative to  (the unquestionably horrible) hostel food. I used to drink those a lot (5 rupees a glass) and I looked my best in those days.

Since we got a juicer also recently and have seen some documentaries like "hungry for change" and "fat sick and nearly dead", I thought I could take juicing raw veggies seriously. Here ar some simple recipes that work wonders for our kitchen.

Apple or pears go a long way in sweetening and giving a good taste to these veggie juices.

My most common recipe is spinach, apple, cucumber( adds lots of volume because of high water content), beetroot (if my maid agrees ot peel it else painful peeling), carrots and ginger.

Saurabh's most common recipe is orange. He just likes fresh orange juice.

This is a list of some recipes that I saw on net and documenting them.
1) Carrot (5-6), Spinach (1 big bowl), Apple (1-2)

2) Cucumber, Spinach, Apple, Celery (1 stick if available)

3) Cabbage, Carrot, Cucumber

4) Cucumber (3-4), ginger (a small piece), coriander (half fist)

5) Green Grapes and a stick of celery

6) Apple, carrot, strawberry

Basically ginger and apple/pear will bail you out regardless of how bitter rest of the veggies are.

Here is another link I found and it can help you further.
http://www.raw-foods-diet-center.com/vegetable-juicing-recipes.html

*****

I think our most common dish has become roasted broccoli with garlic. It tastes yummy. Just oven roast broccoli with garlic and you can add baby potatoes (my microwave which I got as marriage gift has roast button also so I roast in it for 20 mins). Very tasty and filling.

Recipe for Indian Tea / Chai

I know everyone has their own recipe for tea where the order of adding milk, or sugar or tea leaves changes. There are many permutation of adding those ingredients.

This is mine and I think it really works everytime (if I pay attention to it). 

1) Put water for boiling. Grate good amount of ginger (grate not crush - the taste is better if you grate) 

2) Let the water boil. Add Sugar. (or jaggery as jaggery tastes better)

3) Add tea leaves

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Let it boil for a bit - till you see the true colors of tea leaves

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4) Now add milk and let the tea boil completely till the milk threatens to overflow. At that stage, put it in simmer for 1 minute and turn the stove off.

5) (Optional and avoidable) If you like cardamom in your tea - this is the stage to add. Crush one and add. If you add early -the cardamom's taste becomes too strong and over powering.

6) Whether you added cardamom or not- cover the tea and let it cool for 3-4 minutes. This really enhances the flavor and brings the tea temperature below boiling point.

7) Pour in a cup and drink :).

P.S - Trivia - Do you know that even Russians call their tea chai :). 

Sweet Tooth

I really have a sweet tooth and find it very difficult to resist sweets. The worst is my post dinner sweet craving.

Now that I have been gaining lot of weight because of this, I have discovered a great post dinner desert, that is sweet and is not that guilt inducing.

- Yoghurt (I use full fat yoghurt, but I am contemplating gradually switching to a low fat/probiotic yoghurt)
- Pomegranate (I have trained my maid to peel it effectively - actually it is very easy to deseed them if you see the structure of it and cut the pomegranate around it's structure rather than the center.)


Mix the two. Basically yoghurt is 3-3.5 spoons on a cup full of pomegranate.

And eat and enjoy :).

Classic egg roll dhaba style

Something that is quick and easy and also hits the spot. My maid makes extra rotis and namkeen parathas (my husband likes it with tea) almost everyday and so many times by the next morning lots of extra rotis are left. Sometimes if rotis are not at home I get theplas from the adjacent store and that works too. If you are in US then ofcourse you have rotis from rotiland to help you out.

Nonetheless this is a classic recipe that I tried and worked. Yest night my mom came from a flight at 12 at night and was hungry. There were only rotis for food and i made these rolls and she got emotional on eating them as she didnt expect anything. You can try variations of sauces ofcourse.

My ingredient list:
1) 1 Roti
2) 1 Egg
3) Finely chopped onions
4) Coriander leaves, some chopped green chillies
5) Lemon or amchur powder (for tanginess- one of the two is must)
6) Peri Peri sauce (Here you can try variations like pudina chutney etc etc


Method:
1) Put some oil in tava and put your roti
2) Whisk the egg and once the roti is hot - pour the whisked egg on the roti- don't let it spill outside the roti. Let it cook, you can turn the roti and egg so that it is firm.
3) Take the result out on a plate with the egg portion facing upwards.
4) Apply a little bit of peri peri sauce on the roti (alternative apply chilli sauce or pudina or coriander chutney)
5) Add the finely chopped onions, some green chilles and lots of coriander leaves.
6) Put amchur powder (i have it as standby and whenever there is no lemon (which is quite often) I put this to add tanginess.
6) Roll the roti and serve.

Everyone eats atleast 2. So ration accordingly.

Is it possible to make pesto without cheese

Seems like yes and Richa Hingle's blog post : http://hobbyandmore.blogspot.com/2011/05/penne-with-basil-cashew-pesto-asparagus.html is my saviour.

She made pesto with basil, mint, green chillies, garlic, cashew. And she claims it is as yummy as the one made with cheese!

So try it on!

Paneer pakora with yoghurt - healthy alternative to deep fried variety

New dish new dish!

It's been raining the whole day and we were not being able to go out to do anything. And in the eve husband was getting really hungry so I decided to recall some recipe somewhere and made this.

Ingredient:
1) Yoghurt
2) Paneer
3) Besan (gram flour)
4) Lots of garlic - crushed
5) Coriander and green chillies and salt

1) Make sort of a batter with yoghurt, green chillies, coriander, crushed garlic. Add a little gram flour to it - helps in binding.
2) Cut paneer in small pieces and keep it in the batter for as long a time as you can to marinate (30 mins).
3) Have a non stick pan- brush it with oil and put the paneer cubes and let it be well done.

The resulting taste is garlicy and a little tangy because of yoghurt. And we finished it before i could take its snap :P.

Breakfast Today

So it has been a week since I have been working in the morning and saurabh is making breakfast for both of us. Today he was super tensed about his work and I was a little relaxed so I thought I could make something he likes.

It is a tough call because Saurabh hardly notices what he is eating when he is tensed. And for some reason, I was finding one ingredient missing in anything I was planning to make.

So anyways I settled for the following:
1) Egg salad sandwich (I experimented by adding mint leaves to egg salad)
2) Chickoo milkshake (since I had got loads of chikoos yest)

And though he was tensed and immersed in his numerous phones with a IPL match rerun on mute and head immersed in a comp, I felt good when after eating the first bite of sandwich he shook his head. (As I write this I am imagining how was I standing in front of him like a voyeur so for all you know the pressure might have compelled him to nod his head)

So here are the recipes:
1) Egg Salad Sandwich
Ingredients:
a- 2-3 Boiled eggs
b- Mint leaves (beautiful accident)
c- Coriander leaves
d- Green chillies
e- Chilli flakes or optionally lal mirch powder
f- Salt to Taste
g- Green onions - little bit
h - Ceaser dressing or mayo (optional - but it does add that much required zing)
i- Lettuce (one can use cucumber etc - but since I had lettuce at home I used it)
j- Bread - toasted crisp.

1) Chop boiled eggs in small pieces. Add a-h in a bowl and mix properly with a spoon - dont make it a paste so best thing is add the boiled eggs afer you whisk everything else together.
2) Toast the bread, add washed and dried lettuce leaves (u dont want water dripping from your sandwich). You can add cucumber onions tomatoes also. But we didn't add. And then add the filling above on the bread.
3) Secret tip - if the bread is really hot and the filling really cold - some people like it more. But I didn't have the time to cool the filling.


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Milkshake:
1) Peel and cut the chikoos. Remove seeds. So firmer the chickoos easier it is for you to peel.I get mine form Patel stores in front of my house - they are large and not rotten.
2) Blend chicku, some ice cubes and milk (not too much milk - u want the texture of chiku to be dominant here and not the taste of milk) and water. Tip :Always add less milk in the first run and the second milk after tasting the shake and in the second run so that you never regret.

Tip 2: I wanted to add banana too to it but I didn't wanna experiment that combo. Net research shows that it works.

So anyways the hot sandwich and the milkshake combo makes a nice filling happy breakfast.


Strawberry banana:
Priya introduced me to this. If you have strawberries - just blend them with bananas and icecubes. No need to add sugar. Healthy post workout or midmeal option.

Peas Srivastava style

Recipe from my mil.

Ingredients:
1) Fresh green peas - lots of it - ful mixie
2) Lots of ginger
3) Lots of 5-6 colves of garlic
4) Cloves, jeera, kaali mirch
5) Potatoes

Method:
1) Grind 1-3. Yes grind in a mixie as smooth paste.
2) In a pan add oil and add 1. Keep cooking on low flame. For a long time- the peas paste turns brown.
3) Then add some finelly chopped potatos and let it cook for a while.
4) Add a little water and let it cook. The final dish is little liquidy.
5) My m-in-law had a huge urad dal badi that she fired in oil and added to the dish. And we ate it - it along with the main dish felt like the baati of dal baati.

Tomato murabba types

Whenever we went to eat at Masala Bay, they would serve a sweet tomato chutney that I would love. But Saurabh would say his mom makes it better and I would (as usual and as a dutiful d-in-law)dismiss it as nostalgia.
But on this visit to Delhi I asked mom to make it and when I tasted it I absolutely fell in love with it.

Ingredients:
1) Tomato(large cuts)
2) Jaggery
3) Water
4) Sauf (fennel seeds)
5) Ghee

Method:
1) In a pan in add water, jaggery, large cuts of tomato and boil it for about 30 mins on simmer (yes - I swear my m-in-law boiled it for 1 hour or so but I think she boiled it really longer)
2) In 1-2 teaspoon of ghee - add sauf and then mix it with one.

The tomatoes becomes nice and juicy with this method. And I swear - calorie count notwithstanding - I absolutely couldn't help eat a cup full of it. Yummm!

Raita - yoghurt accompaniment to various indian dishes

Sanjeev Kapoor recipe:
1) Crushed garlic
2) Kaala namak
3) Very little Red chilli powder
4) Take thick yoghurt and mix 1-3. If you want to make it thin, add milk. You can strain using a muslin cloth to make it smooth.

My pune aunt's recipe:
1)Cut kheera in very small pieces
2) Coriander leaves
3) Roasted peanuts - good amount (crushed into small pieces- she coarsely powders it but i just break it into 1/6th size and i like it crunchy)
4) Some salt
5)A bit of sugar
6) Yoghurt

Mix well and relish.

Best Hyderabadi Biryani

0) Slice onions and deep fry in oil till brown. Keep it aside
1) Basmati rice - boil till its half done.
2) Get raw papaya paste - add it to lamb pieces - and keep it in fridge for 8 hours.
3) To the marinated lamb pieces add green chillies, salt, haldi powder, red chilli powder, ginger paste, garlic paste, onions sliced and fried (dry and brown), rose petals, pudina(mint) leaves, dhaniya(coriander) add. curd. Mix well. Marinate for 30 mins.
4) On top of it add Rice add elaichi (cardomoms), cloves, kalli mirch, shaahee jeera, moti elaichi, daal chini (cinnamon stick), fried and dried brown onion, garam masala powder, kevda water, pudina(mint) leaves, saffron(mix a little in hot milk), ghee, rose petals, long cut ginger, rose water and kewra water.
5)Cover and cook for 40-45 mins in low flame. Seal it with wheat floor dough. You can put the vessel on a tava so that it doesn't get direct heat.

The Great Indian Greek salad

Low cost low fat. And I love it. I can eat it for most of my life.


Dressing
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Ajwain (also called carom seeds, substitute for oregano - it's stronger in taste)
Garlic (4-6 cloves) (optional)
mustard paste (optional)
2 spoons white vinegar / lemon juice
8 spoons olive oil
black pepper (optional)
Salt
(I also add flax seeds)

Mix well for a while.


Cut vegetables:
---------------
Lettuce
Cucumber
Onions
Olives (optional)
Paneer (marinated in vinegar for 2 hours - and then washed good substitute for fetacheese)
Tomatoes
capsicum (optional)

Optionals:
Bama also used to use chickpeas(boiled chole). Some of my friends used boiled chicken also. Choose anything if at all you want.

Easy to make Omlette Cheela

Something my husband loves.

Ingredients:
- Besan, salt, chili powder
- pudina chutney
- Omelette ingredients- egg, onion, green chillies


1) In a bowl add besan, red chilli powder, salt. Add water and mix well. (optional - you can add a pinch heeng also)
2) In a non stick pan - apply oil using tissue paper.
3) Pour the besan paste and spread using spathula so that it is very thin.
4) Add pudina chutney and evenly spread it over the cheela.
5) Once it looks a bit done, pour the omelette mixture (egg, green chillies onion) on it evenly across its whole diameter.
6) Pour oil for corners. Remove and serve with pudina chutney.

Eat :). Requires a bit of patience when the cheela cooks so the thinner the cheela the better it is for you. I wish there was substitute for pudina chutney - else almost everything else is super instant. I think I should try it with dhania chutney and mooli aka delhi style.

Moong Pakodas

Easy to make (though I am yet to try but saw it on food food channel in delhi)


Procedure:
- Wash and Soak Moong dal in garam water
-in kadhai add oil - caraway seeds (shaahi jeera), heeng, add soaked moong dal, red chilli powder, haldi powder, salty, saunf ka powder
- grind
- Add amchur powder, hara dhania to the mixture
- Add fresh bread crumb for binding
- Fry the pokodas in oil

Perfected palak dal

Palak dal and rice is my comfort food. It is also easy to make and I have been making it for years. Here is my perfected and simplistic recipe for palak dal.


1) Boil dal and palak with haldi in cooker. Add a clove of garlic. Cook the dal till one whistle. It should be perfectly boiled.
2) Finely chop 2 cloves of garlic, one green chilli and chop 1 whole tomato.
3) Take ghee/butter, add jeera, garlic and green chillies. Fry them till the garlic almost begins to burn.(The taste of garlic comes out better when it is turned brown) Add tomatoes and cook till the tomatoes melt.
4) Open the cooker, add the result of point 3 and keep the open cooker on the gas in simmer for sometime till the dal comes to a full boil (take a minute or 2).

Eat with rice :). Or eat as is if you are on diet.

Simple Jaggery coconut sweet dish

This is my fav sweet dish.

Ingredients:
1) rice half cup
2) fresh coconut - half shell
3) jaggery - size of your fist - assuming one has a normal sized fist - also amount of jaggery determines the sweetness of this recipe. (jaggery is not an english word? My spell check showing problem)
4) For garnish - your favorite dry fruits- cashew and raisins work wonderfully for south indian dishes, cardomom and ghee.

Method:
1) Soak rice in water for 30 mins to 1 hour.
2)Hope you are lucky with your jaggery and it is soft so you can cut it in small pieces and boil it in water. I was very unlucky the first time as the jaggery was harder than diamond - so i just boiled the whole thing in water to soften it and then cut it in smaller pieces. Sometimes the vessel tends to burn then one can put the vessel (with jaggery and water) inside another vessel with water and then boil till things are soft. Actually it is not that tough to boil jaggery. So don't get intimidated by this step.
3) Cut the coconut into small pieces.
4) In a mixie grind rice and coconut and some water together till it is a coarse paste.
5) To the ground paste add some water and boil. The rice cooks pretty fast (unless you didn't soak it well enough). You can add cardomom too at this stage. I am always wary of too much cardomom in sweet dishes.
6) Hope by this time - the jaggery has melted. So add the jaggery and add water to determine the desired consistency and sweetness.
7) In a pan heat ghee - fry the cashews. I finely chop or crush them as it is nice to get a piece of cashew in your bite. Some folks fry raisins also but i hate fried raisins so i just add raisins directly. Add the fried dry fruits to the dish
8) Very very important step- cool - this dish tastes better the second day. I am not seriously not kidding.

Enjoy :)!

Methi dishes

I love Aloo methi made any which way. But sometimes people don't like methi because of its excessive bitter taste.

But to any methi that is made - one can add dry mango powder at the end and it gives a nice tangy taste.

Coconut stew

I had eaten Appam and coconut stew at MCA and became a big fan of it. I thought of trying it at home but was too lazy to cut vegetables.
But the grocery store in front of my house started stocking precut vegetables. Boon for lazy souls like me! So I thought I could give coconut stew a try and it came out really well.

Ingredients
1) Either the precut veggie pack that contains - carrots benas and cauliflower.
OR
1a) Take carrots- dice it in small pieces
1b) Take beans - cut it in small pieces - this could be painful - i always hate cutting beans
1c) Take cauliflower - cut in small pieces - or one can use potatoes but cauliflower does add certain dimension
2) Green Peas
3) Coconut milk
4) Laung or cloves 5-6
5) Cinnamon stick 1-2

P.S: One of my tamilian friend's mom told me that the goal of such dishes is to have 5 different colored veggies so feel free for any combination one desires.

Method is super simple:
1) Boil all veggies with salt and cloves and cinnamon stick.
2) Once they are boiled - in another pan add a cup full of coconut milk and dilute it with water. Put the veggies and boil eveything together for some more time.

One might want to add a few cloves in step 2 to get the right taste.

Secret ingredient to black eyed peas and egg curry

One can make black eyed peas and egg curry the traditional way (boil, make onion-tomato - ginger garlic curry) etc and it is fairly nice.
But.
But if one adds even a teaspoon of coconut milk (available in india under the brand Homemade for 26 bucks now!) then the dish just becomes really really tasty.

Easiest Baigan ka bharta

Easiest because you need not even cut the onions!
But there is a secret ingredient - sarson ka tel (mustard oil).

I was always reluctant to cook baigan ka bhurta - what will all the mess it creates on the gas stove. None the less - priya showed me a recipe and I have become a fan.

Ingredients:
1) Large eggplant/brinjal/baigan 1
2) Tomatoes 1-2
3) Green chillies 2-3
4) Sarson ka tel -one teaspoon
5) Garlic - 4-5 cloves
6) Coriander (optional)

1) Roast the egg plant on the gas stove. Alternatively you can do it on microwave too. Just poke it enough
2) Let it cool
3) De-skin it
4) Mash it- if it is getting painful -run it in a mixie but for a split sec - you don't want baigan chutney (though someone told me that makes a good mexican dish)
5) Then cut tomatoes - add to it. Finely chop green chillies and garlic - add to it.
6) Add 1-2 teaspoon of mustard oil. No need to add salt. Just mix it.

It is a cold and makes a good side-dish/ salad.

P.S: My mother's version is hot version where she cooks everything together in gas and adds onion too. One can try that as well.

Capsicum with gram flour

I swear by this dish. I just loved it so much. The only caveat is that it is a "dry" dish". So folks might have to accompany it with tomato chutney or something saucy else the meal becomes very dry.

The recipe is from my mami (my mother's brother's sister) and she is one of the most wonderful cook I have met.

Here are the ingredients:
1) Sauf - fennel seeds
2) Amchur - dried mango powder
3) Onions - finely chopped
4) capsicum - finely chopped
5) gram flour - a couple of cups

1) In a pan - add oil, and give tadka with cumin seeds and sauf - (good amount)
2) Add onions and let them turn pink.
2b) Add your normal things - haldi, dhania powder etc.
3) Ad capsicum and let it cook.
4) Now add besan(gram flour) and let it cook - Don't add water.
5) Add good amount of amchur to it also.
6) If it gets too dry, sprinkle few drops of water to let it cook. The besan turns dark brown when cooked.

Serve and eat - it is very tasty.

Alternatively - if you have small sized capsicum. You can do everything except step 3 and stuff it in capsicum and let the capsicum cook and serve hot.

Fried cauliflowers with yoghurt

Seattle's med kitchen serves an interesting starter of cauliflower (whose portion size is so huge that it is good enough for main course for two! I have never been able to repro it. The below recipe suggested by Richa might work minus the lamb part.

http://lailablogs.com/?p=527

I should try.

Quesadilla

For people who lived in US and enjoyed good mexican food, here is a quick and easy way to make it - from Richa Hingle. I will try to repro it with some mushrooms and baked beans and ofcourse roti.

http://hobbyandmore.blogspot.com/2010/01/grilled-veggie-quesadilla.html


---

And I tried. But changed the ingredients to suit average indian kitchen.
In US, mexican beans and rice (burrito in a bowl) reminded Ankur of rajma chawal and we would eat that a lot. When back in India, the rajma that my maid was cooking reminded me of mexican food. Richa's recipe came handy and I thought of trying the following for lunch.

Ingredients:
- 2 rotis
- 1 teaspoon of olive or any other oil.
- kidney beans boiled (Rajma) - one can keep some aside when you cook rajma for big family dinner.
- rice
- fresh cilanthro
- lemon
- corn (optional (i didnt use it)
- bell peppers (Capsicum) - one can boil them in rice for a bit
- tomato sauce

- yoghurt for dressing

Method:
1) In a pan add few spoons of tomato sauce and some kidney beans to make a saucy combo. Add salt to taste.
2) Add fresh coriander and lemon to it.
3) Boil little bit rice in microwave, maybe with some bell peppers (capsicum).
4) Mix 1-3 (note it shouldn't be watery, just a little saucy)
5) In a non stick pan - add some oil - put roti - let it become crispy. Do that with other roti too. Set one aside.
6) Atop one roti - spread the mixture of step 4. Put the second roti and sandwich the mixture. Flip and let them cook and become crispy.
7) Cut and serve them in a plate and serve with some yoghurt and left over mixture.

Actually I like mixture a lot with some yoghurt. It tastes just like rajma chawal :).

Ripe mango curry

There is a interesting story behind this. Saurabh was surfing channels and he started shouting "Arati Arati". I came running and he said - "look this guy is cooking ripe mango". I said : Raw mango". He said "no ripe mango ".
It is highly unlikely that saurabh notices a cookery show on tv and I dunno if such an event will happen again in this millennium. So well the cook made the dish and he himself was loving it so much and I wonder if he was acting or not but he sure was getting hysterical. Well, when I made it, I couldn't help freaking out after tasting it. Infact I ate away more than half of it before saurabh could come back from work.

Ingredients:
1) Ripe mangoes -the bigger the better
2) Sesame seeds (til) (1-2 spoons)
3) Curry leaves
4) Fresh ground coconut (fistful)
5) green chillies
6) jeera
7) Yoghurt
8) Red chillies
9) Mustard seeds

1) Peel mangoes
2) Cut the mangoes in two ways - one in slices and one minced.
3) Take ingredients (2-6) and grind them in the mixie.
4) In a pan add the ground paste from 3 and add the minced mangoes. Let it cook.
5) After a while add yoghurt to it.
6) Now add the big slices of mangoes and cover it for some time so that the slices become soft with steam.
7) In another pan add oil - put red chillies and mustard seed and curry leaves.
8) Mix it with 6 and yeah the tangy ripe mango curry is ready to be served.
Yes it was really good.

Mustard Fish / Wasabi Fish

I learned this authentic Bengali recipe from vikramjit's mother when I visited calcutta and made it for Vicky when he came here. I think he felt it was pretty close to what his mom made (except that I used Surmai fish and not Bangda). Alexus who accompanied him (and I felt that Alexus wouldn't like it), called this fish Wasabi fish as the gravy was close to the Wasabi sauce, and he being a sushi fan, liked it too.

Well also - this fish curry is the EASIEST fish curry I have come across, there is less mess too while cooking and though Bengalis use mustard oil, you can really do away with the oil.

Ingredients:
1) Mustard seeds (2 table spoons)
2) Khus khus (poppee seeds) - 3-4 teaspoons
3) 2-3 cloves of garlic
4) 7-8 green chillies
5) Fish
6) Salt
(yes the ingredient list is really minimal)
Method:
1) In a blender, blend together mustard seeds , poppy seeds ,garlic, 1 green chilli and water to smooth yellow paste with a strong mustard smell.
2) Add the paste in a pan, add the remaining green chillies (slit) and the fish. Let the fish get boiled and cooked.
3) Add salts to taste

That's it!! Simple and nice with the flavour of fish and mustard coming across. Eat with steamed rice.
P.S: Saurabh couldn't get his share of the fish as it got ove before he could start digging. So the onus on me is to actually make this dish again - exclusively for him. And my maid is telling that she broke the mixer so well, I guess he has to wait :(.

Simple chicken biryani

Last week I made chicken (that I really didn't want to eat but my husband really wanted to eat and went and bought without informing). So the easist thing to make with chicken was chicken biryani. I decided to settle for a recipe that was an extension of my Veg Biryani recipe and it came out just fine...
I will share my simple recipe below... This works if you are a grad student or if you and your loved ones have simple non fussy low cal taste or if it were a lazy Sunday afternoon and your maid had taken off or if you have no maid.

Ingredients:
1) Chicken(I would always go for boney chicken - the bones add to taste)
2) Onions (finely chopped)
3) Tomatoes (finely chopped)
4) Ginger garlic paste (these days I don't go for the one that we get in the market but opt for homemade. That day even homemade was not available so I took few garlic cloves and half a piece of ginger and tried to crush them (didn't use mixie))
5) Some yoghurt (this was the first time I used it - it is kinda optional but it really adds a great taste)
6) 5-6 Cloves (must for any biryani actually)
7) all the random masala you have - whole black pepper, bay leaves, cardomom, jeera etc

Method:
1) In a cooker - add a little < 1 table spoon oil let it heat.
2) Add jeera, crushed cloves and let the aroma of cloves come.
3)Add other spices and onion. The oil should be good for onions to turn *golden brown* without sticking to the pan bottom. Note - Turning golden brown is crucial for its taste to come else there is no need to add onion.
4)Add tomatoes. And let it melt. Add salt , garam masala, haldi, red chilli powder.
4b) Add yoghurt to form a paste
5) Add chicken and let it immerse in the paste created above.
6) Add rice and enough water to cook the rice (my water proportion is always in excess - try 1:1.5 mebbe) - figuring that out is almost 6th sense :).
7) Let it come to a boil - with 1 whistle in simmer heat. Simmer and one in full heat. Varies with cooker to cooker.

Its cooked and ready to serve with some raita made with yoghurt and onions nad a little salt :).



P.S: Here is one recipe I came upon net today - it closely apporximates my recipe but has a little bit of hulla bulla :). I would recommend this if you are inviting guests over: http://enjoyindianfood.blogspot.com/2008/10/chicken-pullao.html

A little change of flavor - Mud Slide

Ah well - sorry about that my non-alcoholic friends or those who believe that I am non-alcoholic... I am most of my life and am very choosy what I take in ...sweet and strong red wine for example - rare to find but VC shares my taste and tips me with good bottles...anyways Priya and Pankaj - my sis-in-law and her husband are into hospitality business. One of the joints they own is the Pub "Beach" in Bangalore. And whenever I go there - I indulge in the mudslide (apart from Mojitos)there and finally I have figured out the recipe...(actually saw it in a newspaper)
Vodka (30 ml)
Kahlua (15 ml)
Baileys (15 ml)
Secret ingredient - Vanilla icecream (1/2 spoon)
Blend well in a blender and served with crushed ice.
I will try and let you know...

Fish curry - attempt to make it similar to Highway gomantak

Highway Gomantak is my favourite place for fish curry in the world. And their food is so light on stomach and so tasty that I just cannot resist going there every alternate time we go out. I wish I could go there more often but Saurabh doesn't like seafood that much.
Here is one attempt to make my curry taste like theirs. I must say I was fairly successful. See pic.
Well I did some reverse engineering to figure it out. And some experimentation too (coz I added tomato and I know that they don't add tomato).
Ingredients:
1) Pomfret fish (1 fish)
2) Grated coconut - handful of it
3) 1/2 lemon
4) 1 tomato
5) 1 onion
6) fresh garlic
7) fresh ginger
8) Dhania powder, lotsa haldi, red chilli powder, jeera

Method:
Mix 2-7 and grind it in a mixie. Make a good paste.
Add a little oil in the paste and add ingredients in point 8 and grind again. This trick I learnt from my maid.
Heat a little oil in a pan. Add this mixture into it. Saute for a while. Note our onion is not cooked and it takes a while to cook so do let it cook for a while. Add fish pieces. Add water if required (and you will require). And let the fish cook. Pomfret cooks fairly fast.

Pomfret/King Fish Fry + coriander garlic lemon brown rice

The recipe that I learned from Paramesh (very spicy):
Key ingredient - Badshah Fish Masala (he would insist that no other masala is good :))
Ingredients list:
1) Badshah fish masala (1 table spoon)
2) Red chilli powder (1 teaspoon)
3) Turmeric powder (4 teaspoon)
4) Ginger Galic paste (1 teaspoon)
5) 1 lemon
6) Pomfret cut in thin slices

Mix 1-5 to make a paste. Add pomfret pieces to it and coat the pieces well. Let it marinate for atleast 30 minutes.
In a non-stick tawa add some olive oil. Add these pieces and fry them till they are golden brown.


My own recipe (very mild) - sometimes I like only the taste of the fish:
1) Lemon
2) 1 teaspoon haldi
3) 1 teaspoon red chilli powder
4) Rawa

Marinate your fish with a coating of 1-3 for atleast 30 mins.
Take rawa in a plate. In a non-stick tawa add some olive oil. Coat your marinated fish pieces in rawa and fry them.



Recipe of coriander garlic lemon brown rice
The name itself is sufficient - this is my own recipe and quite a hit with myself and saubhy (husband)

Chocolat

This recipe from monalisa hota- I will link to my version as soon as I try it out... kamra als ohad his 2 cents (look for at the end of the blog)
My hot chocolate (as put together intuitively based on other recipes from the net):

Ingredients (for 1 cup of hot chocolate):
1 packet Hershey's spl. dark hot chocolate mix;

1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp coffee
a pinch of chilli peppers
2 TBS chocolate chips or plain dark chocolate
whipped cream (optional)

1. melt the chocolate chips (along with chilli peppers and coffee) INDIRECTLY. You could put them in a ceramic bowl/cup and put that over hot water. Occasionally supply heat until it melts. Then add about 1/4th warm milk little by little and heat the mixture until it blends well and is thick. ( I read somewhere that if chocolate is melt this way, it tastes better).
2. In another cup, pour the mix and add little cup warm milk to it to make the mix muddy.
3. Mix both mixtures and heat over low flame until it simmers for 2-3 min. Add the remaining milk gradually while stirring. Keep stirring to prevent from sticking on the bottom. When its thick enough like a syrup, pour out into a mug and have a blast. (you may add whipped cream but it won't stay over the hot chocolate).
You can of course make it as thick or thin to your taste by adding water/milk.
Enjoy the deadly mix!!!


Kamra's 2 cents:
In step 2) the mix is the 'Hershey's spl. dark hot chocolate mix'. It can be replaced be any cocoa mix. But the more bitter and less sugary it is, the better it would be. We couldn't find such a cocoa mix though. Right mona ?

Chilli peppers is the key here. But put very little otherwise it can become really hot.

and I guess if those chocolate chips were also dark and less sugary it would have tasted better.

veg korma

I looked for the recipe all over but couldn't find one that was doable. Cashew paste alteranative of G3 is something I am yet to try. So anyways tehre were so many versions - that I added one more version of mine to teh net. This is my own way of doing it. I am thinking of copyrighting so that no stupid software engg copies it and pastes it on her own blog.

Ingredients: mix veg (carrot, peas, beans), cottage cheese (paneer), 2-3 spoons of yoghurt, ginger garlic paste, fresh coconut (optional)

1) Boil mix vegetable pack
2) I na pan, add oil, mustard seeds, ground cloves.
3) Add onions and fry til lthey turn brown and your neighbours complain of strong onion smell
4) add tomoatoes and fry (dont let it totally melt)
5) add mixed veggies, add diced paneer (cottage cheese cubes)
6) Add a little fresh coconut (option)
7) Add yoghurt and mix

paneer achari :)

This is a starter dish (then serve it with mint chutney) or as a side dish in main course. I tried it at bama's place yesterday and she gave me an idea of the recipe. Actually I just cooked it and I find it really heavy. But it is super yummy. And relatively simple. No fancy requirements. A good candidate to try on my folks in India as well when I am there with them.
Ingredients:
1) Sauf - fennel seeds (I promise this is the only out of the blue ingredient - rest are common stuff)
2) Your usual spices- jeera, mustard seeds, cloves, bay leaves etc
3) Ginger garlic paste
4) Yoghurt (as thick as possible - preferable drain the water - that's what bama told me but I am a lazy bum)
5) paneer
6) really really finely chopped onion (the finely chopped part is very important - also no paste of onions)

Steps:
1) Heat oil in pan, add the cloves, bay leaves, jeera, sauf (fennel seeds), mustard, red chillies (I forgot this time but i think this will add a good rustic touch).
2) Once done, add the finely chopped onions. I added 1 and half onion for 5/6th of the paneer (around 1 pound) that I get in mayuri.
3) I fried it till it turned pink. This took a while.
4) Add 1 spoon of ginger garlic paste (I put the one i buy from market, my mom hates the idea of not usign fresh stuff:( ), added garam masala, red chilli powder, dhania powder and haldi.
5) Once i thought things are cooked, I added 2-3 tablespoon of yoghurt. Enough yoghurt so that al ltthe paneer drowns in it.
6) Once the yoghurt seemed done (oil started seprating fro mthe corners), I added paneer cubes.

For the folks like Bama who work hard:
1) Marinate this mixture overnight. Or atleast for a few hours
2)Next day grill this in your oven.
This would be a starter with mint chutney

For folks like me that is catch (...) :
1) I had a flat bottomed non-stick tava pan (what are these things called officially?).
2) I heated up a little oil and in 2 batches ( I really had a lot of paneer) placed a layer of paneer on it.
3) Once one side was doen I turned it.
You can see the pics of it when placed in tava and once out of it on my serving bowl.
I personally feel (after eating) that marinating a little while it will give a good flavour to paneer.
Also my onions were from Indian store. I think that was a lucky co-incidence for my dish.

shrimps when you have nothing but shrimps

Ok- disclaimer - this is meant for kitchens in US coz I know even when the kitchen is empty - we have onion and frozen grated coconut in stock. And if you don't then you cook less frequently than once in 3 months. So those are my ingredients:
1) Onion
2) grated coconut
3) shrimp

Actually to begin with I only had 1 and 3. But then I remembered that coconut might blend in well and then I remembered taht G3 had fed this to me so I became more confidant.
So here is the recipe:
1) finely - really finely - chop onions. No shortcuts here
2) Heat oil, add cumin seeds, 1/2 cloves, green chillies (if you have them) etc
3) Add the onion and fry till they are golden brown - that stage comes after they turn pink :).
You can add your garam masala, haldi, mirchi, dhania powder at this stage
4) Add the shrimps
5) As an after thought I added good amount of coconut
6) Then I cooked it on and on til lthe shrimps were done
7) I garnished it with some fresh coriander leaves (I know i know - the title of this post is misleading ;) )

It tastes fairly good with the rotis.

one more interesting eggplant dish

http://www.nandyala.org/mahanandi/archives/2005/10/24/stuffed-brinjal-curry-gutti-vankaaya-kura/

Wishlist: chakra pongal

Will correct the name - overheard VC and mary talking about it. Will confirm the recipe too. I think this would be the simplest sweet dish and jaggery will add a distinct earthen flavor to it. I love jaggery sweets :).
1) In a cooker. Add moong + rice + jaggery + some water (I didnt know we could boil jaggery- I havent tried it yet so try at your own risk). Mary pitched in and said that boil in milk and not water.
2) Once boiled - take it out and mash it up baby.
3) In pan heat ghee and fry the dry fruits especially cashews and raisins.
4) Add it to the dish.

Simple dal and rice

Nothing can beat that dude! I tried moong dal with thinkly chopped green chillies and thickly chopped garlic.
1) Boil moong with some garlic and some chillies and some haldi.
2) in a pan heat butter or ghee (small quantity). Add jeera. Add the garlic till the garlic is burnt (its best flavor comes out at this point). Add the green chillies too just before you think the garlic was about to get burnt.
3) Add the dal
4) Boil the rice
Serve rice dal. Onions sliced with lots and lots of lemon :). VC adds lemon to the dal itself while cooking (bengali folks add lemon leaves to the dal).

Wishlist moong halwa

Recipe:
1) Soak moong in water.
2)Grind the soft moong in mixie without adding water to it.
3) In a pan add lots of ghee. Add the moong in it. Stir stir.
4) Stir stir
5) Stir stir till the era changes. Sometime add sugar too :)
6) The moong is brown now. The ghee separating out of it - this indicates that it is done so yo ucna turn off the gas).
7) Heat a little ghee in a seperate pan - add split cashews to it - fry till they are brown.
8) Add to the 6.
Eat hot. Everytime you eat. Heat it in a microwave.
I hope this recipe works.

Wish list: Paramesh's chicken with yoghurt

Paramesh please share the recipe
And Paramesh did:
Take yogurt in a bowl
Add chili powder, turmeric powder, salt, coriander powder, 1 tsp Ginger paste, 1 tsp garlic paste
Cut chicken into medium size pieces
Marinate chicken in the yogurt for ~2 hrs

In a pan, heat up oil, fry finely chopped onion, tomato along with ginger + garlic paste
Add the marinated chicken
Keep stirring till the yogurt disappears (it takes a long time)
You can add coriander leaves and mint at the end (10 mins before)
Chicken is done now.

Heat up 3 “roti land” roti’s and invite Paramesh :)

Wishlist: Fresh cocunut and jaggery south indian dish

Mary please teach :(

Egg curry

I have always miserably failed in it. I will try out this recipe. Might modify it to my convenience. If so will upload it.
http://onehotstove.blogspot.com/2005/10/e-is-for-egg-rassa-and-eggplant-kaap.html

Hmm so finally reproduced it. Didnt use peppercorns and sauf (didnt have them) and my recommendation is add lesser onion than mentioned. I also added 1/4th cup of coconut. I also think it is a little strong on spices so I toned it down.
I satill havent figured out with confidence as to when the egg boils (And how to know. And also how to deshell it smoothly.

My ingredients:
1) Poppy seeds (khus khus), cloves and red chilles (only 2). I added ajwain though :P.
2) Half onion (US size). Full if indian size
3) 1 tomato (since last tomato in the house)
4) Ginger garlic (i added 2 teaspoons and that was the regret - i should have added only one)
5) Coconut (1/4th cup)

Steps:
1) Heat oil - adda little ajwain, poppy seeds, green chilles and crushed cloves.
2) Add onion - fry till translucent
3) Add ginger garlic paste (1 spoon)
4) Add 1 tomato+ the coconut
5) Let it be done and let it cool
6) Meanwhile I hope you had kept the eggs for boiling.
7) Go to a party or something or let things cool
8) Grind the stuff of step 5
9) Cut the eggs in half
10) Heat oil - add the 8. Add haldi and salt + 9. Add good amount of water.

Lauki or spinach kotu

Kotu is a Tamil + Kerala dish. And is a combination of dal + some vegetable. It has to be served hot and is one of those dishes that is simple to make and is good in taste. It is very light on spices and has a coconut flavor to it. The below recipe is for lauki (that my mom swears by as she says it is very healthy for heart patients) and you can substitute lauki with palak. I hate luki to the core and this is the only form of it that i really love.

Ingredients:

1) Curry leaves (yes dude its a south indian dish - this is a key ingredient of al most (if not all) all of their dishes.

2) Green chillies and jeera

3) Grated fresh coconut

4) Yellow dal

5) Lauki

Procedure:

This dish requires both cooker and a mixie so might look cumbersome but actually it is not.

1) Chop the lauki into cubes.

2) Add it to cooker. Add haldi, curry leaves (good amount), 1 chopped chilli and dal ( dal is also good amount)

3) Boil it in the cooker (my cooker take 2 whistles to gewt done)

4) In a mixie- add jeera, green chillies and grated coconut (2-3 teaspoons) - add a little water and make it a coarse paste (the coarseness is important to give it the right texture).

5) In a pan heat oil, add jeera. Add the paste of part 4. Add the things of part 3. Let things come to a boils and mix well. Add Salt.

It is ready to serve.

palak paneer

Ah - one of my favourites. The version I make is the simplest and tastiest as it is enriched with flavor of palak and garlic. Mary taught me this. An accidental improvization (becuase i forgot to turn off the gas) was that it should be really thick to taste the best. And I think this dish is super healthy.

Ingredients:

1) jeera

2) Green chillies

3) Garlic

4) 1 tomato (optional)

5) spinach

6) Paneer

(isnt this short list cool)

Procedure:

1) Take the chopped palak and heat it in water with 2 garlic pieces and 2 green chillies. the water should be less and after boiling it should be very very minimal to get a good consistency. I dont like the idea of draining out hte water as it drains out useful nutrients too so I try to be conservative with it to begin with. Let it cool

2) Meanwhile - cut paneer into cubes. boil it in a water that has a little haldi in it till it is soft. You cna eat a few pieces I eat a lot of them :)

2) In a mixie add jeera and the above thing. Grid till it is a smooth paste.

3) In a pan heat oil. Add 5-6 garlic pieces - all finely chopped so that we have rich garlic aaroma and flavor :). Add some green chillies too ( I avoild red chilli all together and suppliment it with green chillies only).

4) All a finely chopped tomato and let it melt (optional step - tomato adds a little tanginess hence I like it - mary's original recipe does not have tomatoes)

5) Add the palak paste to it. Yo ucan add a little haldi and a little dhania powder to it too.

6) Add al lthe paneer cubes except 4.

7) Cook till there is a boil.

8) Crumble the 2-3 paneer wit your hand and put it on the top. you an pop one of them in your mouth (it is very tasty :)).

That's it - serve with rotis. This is one of my safe recipes. Always appreciated and it is difficult to go wrong with it as it is so simple :).

ginger capsicum fried rice

Reverse engineered the one we get in inchins for 8 bucks! It is simple and all my friends love it. Can accompany any chinese dish too.
Ingredients:

1) Ginger root (raw ginger) -
2) Capsicum- 1-2 depending on how much we are making
3) Spring onions
4) Boiled rice.

Procedure:

1) heat oil in a pan (a little more than average)
2) Add the finely sliced capsicum - it cut it really fine and medium long - fry til lthey seem cooked
3) Add the finely chopped spring onions
4) Add the grated ginger - the ginger should be longer than an average grated ginger and the grated ones not be mashed together - i typically grate it over the pan only. Grate a good amount (half the size of your thimb amount) - The key to follow is every third bite should either contain a piece of capsicum, every second bite should contain a spring onion and every bite should contain a piece of ginger.
5) Add the boiled rice mix well. Make sure the thing is dry and rice is not overboiled :)
Enjoy.

good looking Pasta

Since saurabh has revealed that his favourite dish is pasta - I thought - I would get some cheese/mushroom filled pasta from trader jones. And since I was in no mood to make the sauce (I like alfredo he likes marinara and I detest marinara :( ) . I thought of boiling the pasta and adding some olive oil to it. It turned out ok ok - good for snacking but well pretty.

The good old veg. biyani

Hmm I could never get it right. It was always almost right and I would wonder what goes into the make a really nice biryani. Should I add onions, should I add ginger garlic paste, tomatoes, yoghurt (vids adds it), what condiments, should I add tomatoes! Woah too many combinations to try. Well I didnt try the one with the yoghurt. Sam's mom has a recipe that has yoghurt and mint biryani (that VC reproduced for us)that looks very promising but well is elaborate. So here is my simple biryani that just worked out perfectly for me.
Amongst the ingredients, I think getting these 3 right were the key for me. Onions (fried till they turned brown (yes burnt onions honie), ginger garlic paste (I always undermined it), cloves (that too powdered - i didnt finely powder it).
So here it goes (sorry no photo for it yet - next time may be)
Ingredients:
1) Heat oil. Add bay leaves, one cardomom - two cloves (try to powder last 2 a little bit - we will add more cloves later too) + jeera
2) Add onions - chopped and may be half (US size) and 1 full (indian large size) - fry till they are brown and you have started cursing me thinking that I fooled you as you think they will be burnt soon (dont let it turn black though dude)
3) Add chopped tomatoes( I add 1-2 depending on availability) and ginger garlic paste (1 teaspoon) (I bought 1 ginger garlic paste bottle from mayuri for the first time and I cant stop using it in all my dishes :)). Let the tomatoes melt.
4) Add some garam masala to it.
5) Open a mix vegetable pack (mine contains - corn, peas, carrots, french beans and large seeds of the other type of beans - all cut (corn peas seeds not cut)
6) then add rice - i add a good amount of it (the biryani typically lasts me a week and I have to sometimes call paramesh to finish it off :P). Add water so that the water level is 3 fingers above rice (This funda I came up with while writing this entry and might not work for all - please dont run away).
7) Add the ground cloves too. Also add SALT.
8) Now let it boil in high flame - get one whistle. Simmer, for another whistle (actually this varies from cooker to cooker. I have just figured my cooker by cooking a lot :)).

Chicken biryani should be never made in cooker - says VC and sam's mom - as the flavor doesnt come. I will post their recipe too. It is more professional than the one above.
Hey but didnt I tell you - Indian cooking is all about approximation - aren't all art forms :).

Do make sure that you supplement the biryani with a yoghurt with a little salt, some chopped onions in it. Enjoy! :)

marathi to the core

Mary mentioned this site to me that has all the maharashtrian dishes.
http://onehotstove.blogspot.com/2006/03/to-z-of-marathi-food-round-up.html
Looks awesome.

kheer with walnuts

daal roti inspired by prachi's mom